Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight… a highway for our God!
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
It is said that some people cause a lot of joy when they appear while others cause a lot of joy when they disappear! John the Baptist is among those who bring a lot of joy when they appear. And today’s readings explain why this strange looking man brought so much joy wherever he went.
John’s mission is to prepare the people of Israel for the day of salvation which is to dawn in the coming of Christ. John knows that he has an important mission, to prepare a way for his master.
John the Baptist is one who, by his whole life, points to the Lord. John the Baptist's life was fueled by one burning passion -- to point others to Jesus Christ and to the coming of his kingdom.
St. John the Baptist is the last prophet of the OT. You know the difference between a Prophet, a Poet and a Pragmatist.
The prophet is someone who is not afraid to speak out. He is not afraid of calling a spade, a spade. He will speak the truth even if it will cost him his head. He speaks out in order to call people to change and by changing their ways change the prevailing situation. The job of the prophet is a thankless job. Who wants to create enemies? The poet is someone who sets possibilities before us. He sees the ugliness of the present but tells people that things don’t have to remain that way. He points to a beautiful future that all of us can create together. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a poet. He witnessed, nay he experienced firsthand the oppression of black Americans at the hands of white Americans. It was ugly. But he knew in his heart that things don’t have to be that way. He created a dream in his heart and then shared that dream with America. He said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. “ The pragmatist is someone who gets things done. He delivers. Things don’t remain in the drawing board. He turns plans into reality. Lee Kwan Yu is a pragmatist. He turned Singapore into a prosperous city-state. They say that the former Clark Airbase is even bigger than Singapore.
Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight… a highway for our God!
Every year, as we draw closer to Christmas, we hear this same invitation. God, who in every age has shown his burning desire to be with his children, now comes to ‘live among us’. (John 1: 14) Today too he stands at the door and knocks because he wants to come in and ‘eat’ with us. (Rev 3: 20)We ourselves often long to meet him, to have him as our companion on life’s journey, and to be filled with his light. For him to enter our lives, we first need to remove the obstacles in his path. It is no longer a matter of clearing the roads, but of opening our hearts to him.Jesus himself identified some of the barriers that close our hearts: ‘theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride…’ (Mark 7: 21-22) At times these barriers may be put up by grudges against our relatives or friends, prejudice against people of other races, indifference to the needs of our neighbors, or a lack of attentiveness and love in our families.
There were only two people on this earth who had no sin, Jesus and Our Lady. If you say you have no sin are we expected to think that you are Jesus or Our Lady? If we say we have no sin do we not mean that we have allowed our consciences to go dead so that now we sin but are not even aware of it?
To prepare the way of the Lord has great meaning when we apply it to our own hearts. It is in our own hearts that we need to prepare a way for the Lord. It is in our hearts that we need to make a straight highway for God. It is the valleys of sin in our own hearts that are to be filled with God’s mercy and healing, and the mountains and hills of pride in our own hearts that are to become low. God is searching for us and wants to hold us against his breast.
To prepare the way of the Lord is to repent, to change our lives, to change our attitudes, to change our behavior, to turn our back on the way we used to be and to begin making the Kingdom of God a reality in our own personal life through acts of kindness.
How can we do something practical to prepare the way of the Lord? By asking his forgiveness each time, we realize we have put up a barrier that obstructs our communion with him. We may want to undertake some changes in our lives. However, there is a real danger that our good intentions remain only good intentions. Good intentions are important. They are the first step. Unless you take the first step, you will always remain where you are. Are there things there, things we are doing, saying that might not please Jesus when he comes or that might make it a little harder for Jesus to come into our hearts? Then we are to pick them up, get them out of the way, and toss them aside. We do that by asking Jesus to forgive us and by changing the things, we do and say.